Article 21 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that an employer shall not offset wages with an advance or other credits given in advance on the condition that a worker offers work.
However, the current Act allows exceptions if the amount of offset does not exceed 1/3 of ordinary wages, while prohibiting a shipowner from offsetting his/her claim on a seafarer by his/her obligation to pay wages; which shows that the working conditions of seafarers are relatively inferior to those of in-land workers.
Therefore, this Amendment prohibits a shipowner from offsetting wages with advances or other credits given in advance by applying the provision of prohibiting offsetting to seafarers in line with the Labor Standards Act (Article 31 and Article 177 2).

Prohibit a shipowner from offsetting wages with advances or other credits given in advance on the condition that a worker offers work (Article 31).